Xu Kun slowly turned his head. His eyes, which had somehow begun to shine with a molten-gold brilliance, were like two miniature suns as he calmly "looked" at the pale-faced, rigid Daoist in the distance.
There was not much killing intent in that gaze, yet it carried an absolute detachment that seemed to pierce the essence of all things and look down upon all living beings as if reading the lines on his palm.
At that moment, the Daoist felt as though all his clothing and disguises had been stripped away. From the foundation of his cultivation and the composition of his soul to the deepest thoughts in his heart, nothing could hide beneath that gaze. He had been completely "seen through"!
An extreme terror born from the instinct of life itself—terror in the face of an incomprehensible higher-dimensional existence—instantly seized his heart.
"Heavenly Idle Star · Cloud-Entering Dragon · Gongsun Sheng."
Xu Kun accurately called out his title, his voice calm and without ripples. "You really are... idle enough."
After that faintly mocking remark, his tone abruptly changed, carrying the coldness of someone declaring an established fact. "Congratulations. You can... avoid dying alongside your brothers."
"Hm?" Gongsun Sheng froze at those abrupt words. A powerful sense of foreboding rose within him, yet he could not understand the meaning of the latter half.
Xu Kun gave him no more time to think and directly provided the answer.
"I shall grant you death first."
Before his words had even faded, Xu Kun retracted the finger that had just pointed out the thread of lightning. His right hand casually swept downward, the motion as simple as brushing dust from his shoulder.
Yet along the path of his descending palm, a slowly rotating Bagua diagram woven from pure Lightning Law abruptly appeared. It